Crime & Society - Durkheim's Theory of Crime

How might Durkheim’s concept of anomie be used to explain the deviant behaviour that is becoming apparent in all strata of society?

Emile Durkeim, describes how societies begin in simple forms of interaction and are held together by solidarity and likenesses. These homogenous societies he called “mechanical” with the growth of societies, together with technical and economic advances, make the inter-relationships more complicated and diverse. Members of society become more inter-dependent (“organic societies”), but viewed these changes as being natural and unavoidable, leading to greater happiness for individuals because they were released to enjoy goods produced by others and become a healthier society (a).…show more content…

(d).

However, Merton maintained that the healthy society lays down accepted means of achieving the end or goals (means-end theory) through hard and honest work and not through theft and fraud. He argued that emphasis should be on reaching certain goals with no control of the way in which that is achieved, then society would be anomic. He accepted that more crime was committed by the lower classes and applied its aspects to White Collar Crime, proffering that criminality arose not because of discrepancies between the goals and the approved means of achieving those goals, but because all the members of that society were led to believe that there was equality of opportunity. (e).

Durkheim placed heavy emphasis on a condition of “normlessness” arising out of abrupt change, whereas Merton sees anomie as an endemic condition which can exist at any time in any society. There are two main differences in the idea of anomie: (i) Durkheim states that the desires of the individual are natural and fixed, and the level of criminal behaviour of anomie is decided by the efficiency with which these desires are restrained. Merton states that society, not the individual, sets the desires and goals and that same society also sets the acceptable means of achieving the ends. (ii) Durkheim states that the whole society is anomic, whereas Merton considered that condition only affects certain parts of the society – those

Related

of Crime Typologies such as violent crime, property crime, enterprise crime, and public order crime. It examines each crime by giving the definitive analysis of the crimes as well as the many examples that fall under the specific crimes. This paper aims to answer some of the questions most criminologists face as well as our society as a whole. Questions such as, how often are these crimes committed? What possesses individuals to commit these crimes? How does society actually view these crimes? Have….

Controlling Organized Crime
CJA384
Controlling Organized Crime
Since the 1990’s, organized crime has become a problem among U.S. citizens. The Mafia was the earliest group to show its strengths of power and manipulation among citizens and business of New York City. From the time of the Mafia’s rise, other criminal organizations have surfaced using their power to corrupt personal within business for the gain of finance and political strength. In today society, one of the main question when….

Class: AJS/514
With the theory of conflict it said, it is a social order that society has to abide by this order. With an order it establishes, the social class they are under also the economic class they fit into as well. Karl Marx has derived the theory, which Marx felt that supreme power was from groups. That had the best social resources, political, also economic with them with the conflict theory is exists of unfairness. For the reason the group that has the power that is, an unequal part….

usefulness of functionalist approaches in explaining crime
(21 Marks)
Item A
Functionalist sociologists focus on how far individuals accept the norms and values of
society. Central to their study of crime is the attempt to understand why people break
the rules of society.
Despite their focus on the importance of shared norms and values, functionalists see
a small amount of crime as necessary and beneficial to society. The publicity given to
crime highlights the boundaries of acceptable behaviour….

nature of crime in our society accurately presented by the media? Discuss.
Like every society, Australia has always had its share of criminal activity, from the founding of our country as a penal colony in the 18th century, bushrangers in the 19th century, underworld violence in the 20th century to recent youth violence on our city streets in the 21st century. In this essay, I will be discussing how the media presents crime in Australian society and how this does not necessarily reflect crime statistics….

Subsidiary/Extended Diploma in Public Services
Unit 12: Crime and its Effects on Society
Assignment 2: Effects of crime and how the public services support victims and witnesses of crime
In this assignment I will be examining and investigating the effects of crime on individuals, communities and business and discussing the role of services that support victims of crime and witness. There are a lot of people and communities that are impacted negatively by crime. However in the public service, there are approaches….

Crime Prevention
Marcos Williams
Unit 2: Assignment
Abstract
Crime prevention has become a major issue in our Nation. In our text we have learned that in the early 1990’s President Bill Clinton had passed a bill that hired 100,000 police officers as a result of the Violent Crime Control Act (Worrall, 2008). The hiring of all the police officers looked as if was going to make a huge impact across the nation. With the rate of crime going up across the world crime prevention is really needed.….

Introduction
Fear of Crime in members of our society today has been widely researched. For the purpose of this essay, fear of crime is used in the context of an individual’s perceived risk of becoming a victim of crime. In this essay it is argued that the elderly and the youngest members of our society are the most fearful of crime and that, of these age groups the elderly have the lowest risk of becoming victims of crime. Firstly, research shows that fear of crime is wide spread and that certain….

Labelling theory refers to the ability to attach a label to a person or group of people and in so doing the label becomes more important than the individual. The label becomes the dominant form of identify and takes on ‘Master Status’ (Becker 1963; Lemert 1967) so that the person can no longer be seen other than through the lens of the label. Words, just like labels, are containers of meaning. In this case, the label and the meaning attached to it becomes all that the person is rather than a temporary….

Crime Prevention
CRJ 305
Michelle McMichael
Professor Levit
September 10, 2013
Crime Prevention
“The ultimate goal of crime prevention is to reduce the risk of being a victim.” (SIU, par. 1) “Successful crime prevention efforts will promote a safer community by enhancing the perception of safety and the attitudes and behaviors that help people feel safe.” (SIU, par. 3) Reducing crime must be a community effort. It requires the work of not only law enforcement but also the community….